Roses are Red, Blood is not Blue
by MourningGlory 7
Summary: Murtagh, a 17 year old boy, is forced to deal with too many things. Will he be able to deal with the pressures of life or will he run away from it all?Rated: T for abuse, drug use, sexual content, and swearing. !Modernized!
1. Tripping

Tripping

"Jesus, dad, no!" I shouted. My father was once again drunk, very drunk, and was coming at me with a kitchen knife.

"Youworthelesssonofabitch," he shouted at me, while throwing a wild stab with the cutlery. I dodged it and ran to the foyer. I fell down as the carpet slid on the wooden floor. The crash threw my dad off for a second before he sent the knife flying across the room to lodge itself in the wall. He seemed to abandon the use of it and resorted to kicking me. I rolled over and stood up. Running up the stairs I took them two at a time. I slammed the door and collapsed down on my bed. Pain was a normal feeling for me much like love is normal for most people. Living like this every day is tough at first but once seven years passes you get used to it and start to accept it. I breathed deeply several times before throwing my cell phone across the room at the wall. The chips in the paint varied around a central point directly across from my bed where all of possessions were eventually thrown.

"Murtagh, your little girlfriend's here," I heard my dad shout from the entrance hall. _Jesus Christ, _I thought,_ Mae is NOT my girlfriend, just a good friend. _I ran down the stairs to see her standing on the front stoop of the house. As I walked by I grabbed the knife from the wall and walked out the door.

"He's drunk again isn't he?" Mae asked sort of rhetorically.

"Whadda ya think?" I said waving the knife in her face.

She laughed slightly and said, "You take it so well, if I was in your position I would fall apart."

"I don't handle it as well as you think."

"School starts tomorrow. You'll have to cover up those bruises somehow," she looked at me and gave an inquiring look, "Are you ok?"

"Don't worry about me Mae."

"That doesn't answer my question," she said.

I stopped walking and placed my hand on her shoulder, "You'll know when I'm not ok. Ok?"

"Yah, sure, whatever." We walked a little further in silence before I turned to her and grinned my infamous mischievous smile, "Happy seventeenth, Marina."

"You never forget do you?"

"No. Now give your arm," I instructed her, pulling a black Sharpie out of my pocket. We have been writing things on our arms since the second grade. We also probably both have ink poisoning or something. She held out her arm and I wrote "Never forget" on her forearm.

"Race you to the bridge," I shouted already several feet ahead.

"Not fair, you gotta head start."

It was that odd twilight time that always makes you think of going to get ice cream as a little kid. That renders head lights on your car useless, even though you can't really see without them. Mae and I both sat with our knees pulled to our chests under the highway bridge. The cars roared over us as we stared out over the wide river.

"Hey after you graduate you can get out of here away from your father. You won't have to put up with any of his shit," she looked at me.

"I can't just leave him like this. He has beat me, cut me, and me deserves none of my care, but I can't leave him to fend for himself."

"Just promise me you won't let him get to you."

"I won't, 'promise." She grabbed my arm and wrote "Don't trip over the little things" just above my right wrist.

A/N- Was originally written as a brain child of writers block but it turned out to be my best written story and more people like it than any of my other stories. Short first chapter but its basically a prologue-y type thing.


	2. Darkest Places

A/N- Review or I will post no more of any of my stories. No that's a lie, but seriously please review.

Disclaimer: I own this plot and Mae but none of the other characters. oh except Eragon's dad, but he shows up later. I also am personally responsible for the character's modern personalities.

Darkest Places

The school buzzed with noises of eager freshman, unknowing that this year will be hell for them. My classmates, however, were ready to be done with school by lunch. I, on the other hand, never wanted high-school to end; this was my safe haven, where I could escape my home-life. Where no one knew anything about me, this was better. Mae is my only friend because she really doesn't give a shit. She gets me. Mae sat across from me washing her lunch down with vitamin water.

"Who do you think he is?" she asked jerking her head towards my left shoulder. I turned to see a preppy looking brown haired boy. He was sitting, talking animatedly to a blonde and a black girl.

"Don't know, but he's getting along quite well with Arithmetic Arya and Neat-Freak Nasuada," I smirked, turning back to the brunette across from me.

"Hey, I, uh, saw you sitting alone with that girl at lunch. You wanna sit with us at lunch," I turned to see the prep from lunch.

"Ummm, not really,"

"I think you misunderstood, I was kind of asking as a friendship thing. The name's Eragon," he said, offering his hand.

"No, _Eragon_, I understood you just fine." I brushed past him to get to class.

School ended at three, and Mae and I would drive to the nearby town and hang out just as always. Someone bumped me to my right and I turned to swear at them. Something caught my eye and I doubled back and looked and sure enough there he was. That kid Eragon getting into a very fitting family Sudan and holding a little sister. The thing that really caught my eye was mom standing by the driver's door. Something inside of me snapped, that was what the lame-ass conversation was about. He was trying to make friends before I realized that he was the kid who ruined my life. I stormed over to him.

"Murtagh?" I heard Mae say from behind me.

"Nice try, Bastard," I said and punched him square in the face.

"Murtagh!" my mom shrieked.

"You! You just shut the hell up. You don't get to tell me what to do. You gave up that right long ago," I directed at her, leaving he stunned. "Come on Mae let's get the hell out of here," I said grabbing her arm and leading her to my car. I got in the driver's seat and she got in the passenger's.

"Murtagh, what the fuck was all that about?" she asked. I looked at her, my lower lip trembling.

"Oh shit Murtagh, what is going on here?"

"That kid…is the reason why my life…is so messed up. My mom…had him a year after she had me…and when my dad found out…he went mental…and she left," I said through gritted teeth, "My dad blames me… for everything that has ever happened to him," I said tears spilling out over my cheeks. I leaned my head back with the back of my hand over my face, before placing both hands on the steering wheel and putting my forehead on them. Mae put her hand on my shaking shoulders. After a few minutes I straitened and wiped my cheeks with the back of my sleeve. Mae grabbed my arm and wrote "Love shines through in the darkest of places". I smiled slightly at her and started the engine.

A/N- Not to sound too cocky but I think I'm doing well with their personalities.


	3. Keep Holding On

A/N- Thought I'd post two today and see if more people would review. And thank you everyone for reviewing Embers. Oh yah, chapter title's really cliché but it fits, plus I love that song. Ok 'bye. R&R please

Keep Holding On

"Murtagh, you can't just skip school so you don't have to see him, forever," Mae scolded from the edge of my bed.

"Look at me Mae, I'm bruised more than a rotten apple, I call that a good excuse," I said from the door way of my bathroom, waving my razor in the air.

"Come here that one wasn't there yesterday," she said.

I looked down at my right ribs and placed my hand over the purple bruise, "It's fine," I said, but walked back to the sink to wipe the extra shaving cream off my face. I sat down to the left of her and raised my arm.

"Murtagh you should talk to someone about this."

"I do, I talk to you."

"I'm serious. These look bad."

"Mae, you worry too much," I said slipping my tee shirt back on, "Let's just go to the movies." We walked out the door without notice, because my dad was busy watching the basketball game on T.V.

"Does he at least have a broken nose?" I asked on our way into the theatre.

Mae grabbed my left hand that was looped around her shoulders and grinned up at me, "Yes, and a black eye," she laughed at my satisfied expression.

I lay in bed staring at the ceiling thinking of when I was seven and I wanted to play baseball, so my dad signed me up. I sucked but he was still there for every single game. Or, when my mom took me to the park and we would chase each other in circles around the swing set. At one point in time my family was a family and we were happy. I was snapped out of my reverie by my door being slammed open. I jumped and looked to see my dad. He was on top of me and dragging me downstairs before I could think. Damn myself for being caught off guard.

"What the fuck is this!" He bellowed, holding up a dirty dish. _Damn, I forgot to do the dishes_.

"A dish," I said simply, waiting for the outburst. The dish was thrown at my chest and shattered there. I jumped back before the shards landed on my bare feet.

"Don't you walk away from me when I'm talking to you." His fist hit my jaw and he kicked me hard in the knee, sending me to the floor. He then kicked me hard in the stomach. I rarely put up a fight much past the third blow, it being a lost cause. I rolled over to avoid a kick aimed at my face, in the process making a long gash in the back of my forearm on a piece of dish. I scrambled for the door and got out. Mae lived just three houses down from me, so I ran for her house clinging tightly to my arm. I knocked on the oak door and after a short wait Mae's mother, Mrs. Williams, answered the door.

"Is Mae awake? I need to talk to her," I said pushing my way through the door.

"Yeah of course, what…?" she began but I was already up the stairs. I banged on Mae's door with my foot. It opened to an annoyed Mae, "What do you want, I was almost…Murtagh! What the hell did you do to yourself?" she said in response to the blood oozing in between my fingers.

"Dish," I said through my teeth, "You're the only person I could think of."

"Bathroom, now, before you stain the carpet," she said. We walked the short distance to the aforementioned room. Once the door was closed I turned on the faucets in the sink and put my arm under it. She handed me an old towel to wrap around my arm.

"What really happened, Murtagh?" she asked, leaning against the door.

"You don't want to know."

"Jesus Murtagh, you don't even care about this anymore do you?"

"I've just sort of accepted all this shit," I told her. I wrapped the towel around my arm and then secured it by wrapping a piece of string from my pocket in a criss-crossing fashion.

"You may not care but I care. I can't keep taking care of you like this. I can't watch him rip you to pieces," She cried. She let her whole body collapse, sliding down the door to the floor. Tears streamed in great rivers down her cheeks.

"Damn it, Mae what's gotten into you?" I asked.

"I'm sorry," she sniffed, "My dad died a year ago today, and it puts me under such stress."

"Oh shit, I forgot. I'm sorry; I've been sitting here wallowing in my own problems." I wrapped my uninjured arm around her shoulder pulling her close to me. She cried into my chest for a good three minutes, before she looked up and wiped the tears from her face.

"We should get you to the ER so you don't lose too much blood," she said through her thick throat.

"I don't want to go to the hospital," I said back.

"Come on you have to go they won't take your shirt off."

"Yes they will, I'm wearing long sleeves."

"No they won't let's just go,"

"Dude it's like midnight."

"Yah well the ER's kinda a twenty four hour kinda place."

"Fine," I said ending the pointless argument, Mae always wins so I was saving my pride some hurt. We walked downstairs and almost made it out without notice but we got caught by Mrs. Williams' boyfriend.

"Where are you kids going so late?" he asked.

"We're just going out, Steven," Mae answered. Steve was a good guy but Mae never treated him well cause he's kinda her fake daddy.

"Fine but be back before sunrise." Steven was always trying to act cool and be lenient about the rules. Mae grabbed the keys from the table by the door and we were off. The car ride was uneventful and neither of us talked, we simply listened to the road noise below us.

We pulled into the parking lot of Alleghany County General Hospital half an hour later. The towel I used to ease the flow of the blood was rather red and gross looking.

"Mae, I don't want to do this anymore," I said looking at the light spilling across the pavement from the Emergency Room.

"Look at your arm Murtagh. Plus, we just drove like thirty minutes to get here, you're going in there," She said.

"Fine," I said, opening the door. That horrible beep that the car makes when a door is ajar broke the silence in the parking lot. It stopped shortly when Mae took the key out of the ignition.

"Wow, what did you do?" inquired the doctor. I assumed he was knew and had never seen what a dish could do if rolled on.

"I broke a dish and tripped," I answered, just wanting to leave.

"Ok, I'm going to have to take your shirt off," He said, his hand starting to pull up the hem. I slapped his hand away without thinking. I saw Mae give me a funny face from behind the man.

"Sorry. Uh, can't you just do this with my shirt on? I mean, my sleeves are rolled up."

"No, hospital regulations, sorry," the doctor

"Fine," I said, "but you have to promise not to tell anyone, ok?"

The doctor looked worried but he nodded his head in approval. I slid my shirt off over my head exposing my bruises. I saw Mae cringe in my peripherals. The doctor could only gape at me.

"Just stitch me up and let me go, please," I said exasperated.

"Well that was horrible," I said on the drive home.

"Well yah, I actually expected it to be worse," she said, over the steady pounding of the rain that had started since we left.

"Hey, can I stay at your place tonight? I don't really feel like going home right now."

"No problem, but you have to go back to school tomorrow if you do," she teased. _Of course, a catch twenty two_, I thought.

"Fine, I'll come back but I'm not gonna be nice," I grinned at her.

The house was dark when we got home. I looked at the clock; it was three in the morning. We snuck up the stairs as quietly as possible because Mae's staircase seemed to squeak a bit too much for how new the house was. Mae grabbed a towel out of the bathroom as we walked by, to dry her hair off from the rain. We stood in the dark afraid if we turned on the light Mae's mom would wake up.

"You want the bed or the floor?" she whispered, scrubbing her short hair with the towel.

"Seriously Mae, we've been friends since we were five, I think we can share a bed without it being awkward," I said back. I shook my head like a wet dog, splattering Mae with water.

"God Murtagh, I just got dry," she said almost too loud, "Which side do you want?"

I laughed looking down at her twin sized bed, "You're joking right?"

"Shut up and turn around."

I obliged and slipped my shirt off over my head. I flipped open my phone and called my house leaving a message for my dad that I was staying at Mae's house. He wouldn't get it but it was the thought that counts. Mae was already in bed when I turned back around, and I crawled in behind her.

She rolled over and whispered, "Murtagh how do you keep so calm about everything?"

"I have you," I said back, and grabbed her arm wrote that just above what I wrote three days ago.

"Night Murtagh," she said rolling back over. I wrapped my arm around her waist and we fell asleep like that.


	4. Comes Crashing Down

A/N- Happy effing Halloween! I am so effing excited for Halloween! Okay new chapter! Review please.

Comes Crashing Down

"Murtagh, wake up!" I lazily opened my eyes to see Mae shoving her portable alarm clock in my face. It took a while to realize what the time meant.

"Holy shit! Why didn't you wake me up? It's seven forty-six!" I shot out of bed and pulled my shirt on.

"Well, I tried but you sleep like a rock," she said exasperated, "Come on we still have to get your stuff from your house. Plus, you need a different shirt."

She was right even thought the fabric was a dark gray you could still see the red-brown spots from where my blood stained it. We ran down the stairs and out the door, skipping breakfast. Mae swung her shoulder bag over head as we walked up the street. The front door was locked so I knocked the key down from the top of the framing and opened it.

"Hello," I shouted. No reply, thank god he went to work this morning. "Ok stay here I'll be right back down," I turned to Mae. I gathered my stuff and threw it into my backpack and changed into my tee shirt I got when Mae and I went to a Fall out Boy concert. I still don't remember buying it or why because it has the symbol from the band Metallica on it, and I have never liked Metallica. I pretty sure we were both pretty drunk that time. I slipped a sweatshirt on over it because the weather was starting to get cold and ran down the stairs to find Mae.

Art class was just after lunch so we all made our way down to the other end of the school. I honestly think that they arrange my schedule every year depending on distance from the last class. Today's assignment was to draw a portrait of your assigned partner.

"Now this will be difficult because you both will be drawing at the same time so you will have to judge what you know about the person," Ms. Alvarez said. "Now I will read your groups off this list." I listened for my name. She called, "Murtagh Evans and Eragon Fleming." Several people snickered obviously having heard about our run in. I glared at the brown haired boy as he stepped forward. His left eye showed signs of having a black eye recently and his nose was still slightly bruised where it had broken. I smirked a bit at this. I sat down at the easel directly across from his and picked up the pencil and started drawing. I sketched his head into an almost perfect circle and added two eyes one smaller than the other, to accommodate for his black eye of course, a very small cartoonish nose with about an inch of bandaging on it and line for a mouth. I shaded the area around the smaller eye and finished by drawing a neck far too thin to support the round head. I looked at the whole thing and saw that he looked very much like Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. The teacher never said our pictures had to be realistic.

Mae's POV:

She looked across at Murtagh; he was concentrating on his drawing and seemed to have the tip of his tongue between his front teeth. He looked up and looked in her direction. She looked away, blushing. She had had small feelings for him since they turned fifteen, any girl would he was quite handsome, but last night's happenings really pushed her to the edge of things. She loved the way he had wrapped his arm around her stomach. Being so close to him and being able to feel his hot breath on the back of her neck made her nervous. She had to stop thinking about it so she returned her attention to the gorilla-ish boy she was supposed to be sketching.

Normal POV:

"Hey Mae you coming," I shouted to her. I turned my body sideways to squeeze between the people massing out toward the buses. Mae was standing at her locker, packing her things into her bag.

"Yeah coming right now," she said swinging the bag onto her shoulder. We walked out to my car and got in. I started the car and we drove off. By the highway bridge I pulled off to the side of the road. The water in the river that ran parallel to the main road was much higher from all the rain this past night. We sat down leaning against one of the concrete pylons holding up the bridge.

"How's your arm," Mae asked.

"It hurts a bit but I'll live," I looked down at her and hooked my arm around her shoulders. She gasped slightly at this action and I looked at her funny.

"Are you ok, Mae, you've been acting kinda weird since this morning," I asked her, "You wouldn't talk to me at lunch and you kept looking away from me in art class."

"Ya, I'm fine, just not feeling very good today," she looked down at the ground when she said this.

"Well, we should get you home then," I said standing up. I offered her my hand and pulled up off the grass bank. She brushed the dry grass of the seat of her pants before getting in the car. We didn't talk as we drove home; Mae simply sat watching trees and cars speed past beside us.

I pulled into her drive way and twisted around to get her bag out of the backseat, but she had already left and was walking into her house by the time I turned back around. I dropped the bag down onto the front seat and threw the car in reverse.

The door to my house was still locked from before I went to school, so I pulled the key out of my bag and opened it. I knew my dad wasn't home because he never locks the door, so I walked silently up the stair and dropped Mae's and my bags on the floor. My window was open letting the warm, late September air in. I opened my bag and pulled out the envelope from the principal. It read: _To the Parent/Guardian of: Murtagh Evans. _The "To the parent or guardian" was typed out on the computer and my name had been penned in by someone, gave it an impersonal aspect. I continued reading:

_Your child's lack of interest in Science, Math, History, and English is problematic. Currently their grades are 64.87 in Science, 57.96 in Math, 83.77 in History, and a 89.23 in English. I highly recommend that you encourage your child to do their homework and to study… _

Downstairs I could hear the phone start to ring. I crunched the letter in my hands and threw it across the room and opened my door, slamming it behind me. The phone continued to ring, the clanging sound filling the otherwise silent house.

"God, I'm coming," I yelled for I often yell at inanimate objects. I slid across the kitchen floor the rest of the way to the phone and picked it up, stopping the ringing midway.

"Hello, is this Mr. Evans?" A voice asked from the other side of the receiver.

"Uh, no he's not here," I said back, completely forgetting that stupid class we had to take in fourth grade called "On My Own and Okay".

"What I mean to ask is, are you Morzan Evans' son?" she asked again.

"Yes, why?" I said back.

"Your father has been in a car crash and was taken to the Hospital in the next town over. He is in critical condition." Her voice was very calm like she was used to telling people things like this.

I almost dropped the phone in shock, "Umm, ok, where are you?"

"I'm down on Route 75. If you need I can drive you there." She offered.

"Yah, umm, sure, you have my address from my dad's driver's license, right?"

"Yes, I know how to get to your house. I should be there in five minutes." The phone clicked as she hung up. I placed the phone back in the base and walked over to sit down on the stairs. I sat there, tapping my leg for what felt like an eternity, before the door opened. I looked up to see Mae.

"Hey Murtagh, I left my bag in your car earlier, I just came over to get it," she walked in without really noticing me.

"Yeah, it's upstairs in my room, you can head on up and get it," I said standing up while continuing to tap my leg.

She turned to walk up the stairs but turned to look closer at me, "Murtagh are you ok?"

"No," I looked at her, "My dad, he was in a car crash and they took him to the hospital."

"Then why are we still here?"

"The police are taking me there cause they now where they took him," I explained.

"Oh," she said, "I'll be back, don't go without me."

"Yah, okay," I turned to watch her run up the steps. I sat for a few more seconds before there was a knock on the door. I told the person to come in, and the door opened revealing the police officer.

"Mae, hurry up," I shouted up the stairs. The woman stared at me funny; I guess she expected me to be more emotional. Mae pounded down the stairs taking them two at a time. Her bag was slung over her shoulder and she had one of my sweatshirts in her hand. She tossed it to me said, "It's cold out." I slid it over my head and we walked out the door and got in the Police Cruiser.

The hospital was cold and the police officer had left us. The waiting room for surgery patients' families was filled with people but there was hardly any sound save the white noise coming from the television and the sticking sound when ever Mae moved because she was wearing shorts and the vinyl chairs weren't the most comfortable things in the world. I sat tapping my fingers on the arm of the chair, ignoring the dirty looks people kept shooting at me; willing me to quit.

"Young man, would you please stop that. Some of us have things to think about and you tapping is not helping." I looked up to see a very worried looking middle-aged woman.

"You think I'm just sitting here for fun, huh? You think I don't…" I started but quit when Mae elbowed me hard in the ribs. I glared at her, but shut-up. We waited and waited for what felt like hours until a small woman and asked, "Evans?"

I looked up and raised my hand. Mae squeezed my hand and we got up and walked toward her. She looked at me somberly and said, "Mr. Evans, we did everything we could but he was just too far gone…" I didn't listen to anything else she said, but instead squeezed by eyes shut trying to convince myself this was a dream; I couldn't decide whether it was a bad dream or whether it was just a dream though. Mae wrapped her arms around me. I was trying my hardest not to cry but an occasional tear would leak out of my eyes.

We sat back down and I tucked my legs up to my chest and rested my head on them. Mae stood and called her mom, I only knew because I could hear her conversation: "Oh, hey mom. Could you come pick Murtagh and me up? … We're at the hospital…No mom we're fine. Its Murtagh's dad…No mom he's dead…" She tried to make the last bit as quiet as possible, not that it would have helped at all but it was sweet that she had some tact. "Mom just come and pick us up ok…Yeah see yah in half an hour." I heard her sit back down beside me and I could feel her watching me but I didn't feel like arguing.

_An hour later…_

I lay on the couch in Mae's house staring at the ceiling. The TV was on really quietly but I wasn't watching it. So many things were running through my head it was hard to get to sleep. Somewhere in the background I heard Gimli yell "It still only counts as one!" I reached up to the back of the couch and turned the TV off and rolled over, pulling the afghan up to my chin and burrowing deep into the back of the couch, closed my eyes and fell very slowly asleep.

A/N- I was gonna wait a bit longer to write this but I wanted to move on a bit and torture him some more with Eragon *maniacal laughter* Omg! I spelled maniacal right on the first try! That last part was hard for me to write cause I've never lost anyone that close in relation to me and neither of my parents are abusive(thank god for that) so I didn't quite know how to make him feel about that. Oh yeah and for some odd reason I've decided that feel should be spelled feal so if you saw that it there somewhere just know that's what I meant.


	5. Oh Potatoes

A/N- This takes place like three weeks later and Murtagh's over the whole wow im sad that my dad died and hes back to the whole "my dad sucked so badly" attitude. Actually he has quite the attitude towards life in this chapter. (I think I might have been having a bad day or I was mad at my mom when I wrote this first part.) The chapter title doesn't really fit with the rest of them but I'll get back to the theme in a bit I just have to adjust some stuff.

Oh, Potatoes

"Mr. Evans are you listening to me, because this is important?" the lawyer asked.

"Yes, Mr. Charleston I'm listening," I said looking across the table at my mother. Her brown hair was pulled up in a bun and she was dressed for work.

"Mr. Charleston, can we speed this up a bit, Angela gets out of kindergarten in half an hour," she said in a business tone.

"Yes ma'am," He said, "Murtagh since you are a minor you are incapable of taking care of yourself alone we…"

"Oh Jesus Christ," I shouted, "I've been taking care of myself since I was ten," I slammed my hand down on the desk, "That stupid drunk you call my father couldn't take care of me if his life depended on it."

"Right, as I, ah, was saying, while the Williams' have provided a temporary home we needed to find you a permanent home. Your mother, Ms. Fleming over here has very generously offered to welcome you into her family."

"Her family," I laughed non-comically, "I am her fucking family already." I was pleased to see my mother flinch at the use of this particularly vile word.

"You are her family, and you will move in with her today. All right?" the mousey face lawyer said, seeming rather nervous that I might start something.

"Alright, thank you Mr. Charleston," my mother said before standing up and grabbing my arm as she circled the table. Her grip on me was strong, much stronger than I had expected. We got in the tan Sudan that I had seen earlier in the school year and she turned it on. A bizarre arrangement of a violin, a piano, and a flute was playing on the radio. I reached over and turned the knob to the radio station I always listen to. I recognized the song as "This is How I Disappear" by My Chemical Romance. I turned the volume way up pushing my limits. My Mother reached and turned it all the way back down so the road drowned out almost all the noise.

"Eragon has already made room for you in his room," she said conversationally.

"Whoa, hold up, I am not sharing a room with that kid," I said turning my whole body around in my seat to gape at her.

"Well, you are going to have to unless you want to share with Angela your little sister," She looked momentarily at me before returning her eyes to the road.

"Fine, but as far as I'm concerned I'm not related to any of you especially not your lame-ass husband."

"You watch your mouth young man."

"Whatever," I said turning back to stare blankly out the window.

Their house was blue, who paints their house blue. I guess they thought it would be cute or something. The large house was built in a Victorian style and had two big porches on it. There was a flagstone path leading up to the front porch, which had a wooden swing hanging from the ceiling. I got out of the car and opened the trunk. I swung my duffle bag over my shoulder and grabbed one of the boxes holding my stuff. I could hear my mother picking up the other box and slamming the trunk closed.

"The door should be open," she shouted after me. There were two doors, the first being a screen door that had been repaired several times and the second a glass pained door that had glass that needed cleaned badly. I set my belongings down and looked around the house. The living room was to the right of the door and the kitchen and dining room were to the left. At the end of the hall the lead to the kitchen there was a bedroom, assumingly the master. There was a small table next to the stairs that had several days' worth of mail and a plant sitting on it. The sound of me throwing my box on the floor set a dog barking in the room to my right.

"Oh shut up Brom," a deep man's voice said. He walked out into the hall. He was probably around six foot and wore a green sweater over a collared shirt. He also had rimless glasses perched on his nose. "Oh, hi, you must be Murtagh," he said holding out his hand, "My names Gregg."

I ignored his proffered hand and stared at him, my hands in my jeans pockets.

"Ah, Selena, glad to see you're home," he said, looking over my shoulder.

"For a short time at least. I have to go pick up Angela," she said back, leaning over to kiss him. I turned around and slung my bag over my shoulder.

"Where is Eragon's room?" I asked, interrupting them.

"Oh shoot," my mother said, looking at her watch, "Gregg you'll have to show Murtagh around, I'm already late."

Gregg looked at me and pointed upstairs. "Your room is up there on the left," he bent and picked up the box that Selena had brought in. I climbed the stair case noticing that they were the kind of people that hung family pictures up and down the stairs. It hurt to see my mom sitting holding a very round baby grinning and leaning against Gregg. I was already unpacking by the time Gregg got to my new room.

"Where do you want this?" he asked

"Over there somewhere," I said waving my hand without turning around, "I'll get it sometime."

"Ok, well I guess I'll just give you the abridged version of the tour and let you settle in," he said leaning against the door way. "Well, obviously this is your room, you share with Eragon, um, the bathroom…"

"Is the one with the toilet, the kitchen has the food, and your bedroom's off limits because that's where you do all your mommy and daddy stuff," I cut him off commenting sarcastically, and turned back around to put the picture of me and Mae on the bedside table.

"Well, I'll just, uh, go then," he said sounding slightly uncomfortable. I grinned and sat down on the bed, looking around. The clothes in the closet were hung perfectly, all the pants together and all the shirts together. All the piles on his desk were arranged largest stuff on the bottom to smallest on the top. Either this kid was really gay or he was just very OCD. I shoved all my clothes into the closet, threw my sheets on the bed, and poured the rest of the stuff on the spare desk in the corner, and ran down the stairs.

"See ya Gregg," I said almost out the door.

"Wait where are you going?" he said walking out from the living room again.

"Out."

"Out where?"

"Mae's house, now shove off. You may be housing me but believe me, I never asked for any of this, I can take care of myself," I said pushing myself out the door. I had memorized the route; it took about fifteen minutes by car so it should take me about forty-five to walk. The cool fall breeze blew the dried leaves across the road and sidewalk. By now it was late October and several people had Halloween decorations out on their front lawns. The Fleming's house was rather far out in the country really.

Mae's house was as familiar as ever, with its gray siding and white front door. I knocked and was let in by Steven.

"Is Mae back home from school yet?" I asked him.

"Yah she's in her room," He said.

"Thanks." I took the stairs two at a time and burst into her room.

"Some gentlemen you are," she said turning down her radio, "What if I was naked?"

"You do your homework naked?" I asked whistling.

"Asshole," she said sticking her middle finger up at me.

I rolled my eyes sitting down on the edge of her bed.

"So how's your knew family?" she asked shoving her homework away.

"Well, where to begin, their house is blue," I saw her make a face at that, "Eragon's clothes are like hung perfectly in order from longest to shortest and his desk is freakishly organized. When I say organized I mean there is not a staple out of place. I mean he doesn't even own a radio, nothing sinful like that would be found in his room. The whole house is like that. It's a bit creepy," I said dramatizing it when necessary. I looked at her, her face was red with suppressed laughter, "What, what is so funny?" She said nothing but burst out laughing.

"Do they fluff their bath mats and dry out their sinks?" she asked laughing.

"I don't know, but probably," I said swallowing my laughter. She said nothing more, just laughed. _God was that laugh contagious. _That thought caught me off guard. It wasn't an innocent off the top of your head thought; it was a ravenous thought coming from my stomach that left me feeling almost queasy. I pushed it to the back of my mind and started to laugh along with her.

I opened the front door and pulled my sweatshirt off over my head and started to take off my shoes before I heard a muffled shouting coming from the kitchen. I strained my ears to hear.

"Gregg, he's my son, we have to take him in," my mom said.

"No, we cannot have him around Angela; she can't grow up with a mouth like that around," Gregg said back, "were you listening to what I said earlier, he has no manners."

"Who are…? I turned to see a little girl standing behind me. I clamped my hand over her mouth and motioned for her to be quiet I assumed this was Angela. She had dark hair much like mine and she looked far closer related to me than Eragon.

"Who are you?" she asked, shoving my hand off her mouth. _Wow, she was annoying._

"Nobody, now be quiet," I answered.

"You're that knew kid that mom said was going to move in," she whispered.

I turned and glared at her, "Would you shut-up! I'm trying to listen," I hissed.

"Mommy say 'Shut-up' is a bad word," she whispered back.

"You want to hear a bad word…" I began but I was cut off by my mother walking around the edge of the staircase. I stared at her and ran up the stairs slamming the door to my new room. I threw myself down on the bed and turned on my radio.

"Hey! Turn it off, I'm trying to do homework," I heard Eragon say from my left. _Jesus, I forgot he would be in here now._ I rolled over and glared at him.

"Turn it off yourself," I told him.

He turned back to his homework his hands over his ears. I flipped him off before turning back around so I was staring at the dark green wall. The walls were painted bead board and there were two windows in the room both painted white. All in all it wasn't a bad room, with its odd shade of green and the two beds and desks crammed into it. I got up off the bed and realized that he had thrown all my clothes out of the closet and they lay in a pile at the corner of the room. I turned and saw that he was already looking at me.

"You'll have to put them under your bed. There isn't enough room in there," he said gesturing at the closet. I looked thinking that there was plenty of room but I turned back to him and finished with a, "Fine". I pulled the cardboard boxes out from under the bed and realized they were full of stuff already. Turning around I noticed it was all the stuff from my desk.

"Stop touching my stuff," I said.

"Now that I didn't do," he said back.

"Well then who did?"

"Well I'm guessing mom did," he looked at me, "Go ahead and blame me if you want, but I didn't do it."

"Whatever," I said, and dumped my desk décor out of the boxes and threw all my jeans in one and my shirts in another. I threw everything back on my desk, this time making sure to clump everything together into groups of possible likeness. I walked over to the closet where I had hung my duffle bag on one of the coat hooks, routing through it I found what I was looking for and sat back down on my bed. I pulled a cigarette out of the pack and shoved it in my mouth, lighting it. I took a long drag off it and closed my eyes resting my head against the wall at the base of my bed. _God, it had been four years since I last smoked_, I thought. I wasn't dependent on the nicotine because I hadn't been smoking for long enough, I just liked smoking.

"What do you think you're doing? Put that out," Eragon yelled at me. I looked over at him and noticed he had finished his homework.

"Can I turn the radio back on now that you've finished your school work?" I asked ignoring his previous comment.

"I said put it out. It's gonna start smelling in here and mom's gonna blame it on me," He repeated.

"Oh well that's all the more reason to keep smoking," I said looking at his face trying to see what pushed his buttons.

"Seriously, just put the damn thing out." I seemed to have pushed a rather large button because I got him to swear. He lunged at me, but I leapt off the bed and landed on the floor a good five feet away. This was actually pretty amusing for he just opened a lot of opportunities if he freaked this much over a cigarette.

"Make me," I said from the other side of the room rather childishly. To my surprise he lunged at me again but this time grabbed the thing out of my hand, opened the window beside me and threw it out. I couldn't help but to break down laughing.

That night at dinner we were all sitting there in utter silence, which was fine with me, until Angela asked for the potatoes ("please" and all). I continued to eat not noticing that the dish was beside me.

"Murtagh," my mother said, "Angela wants the potatoes."

I looked up, "Oh, sorry," and passed the potatoes. We sat in even more awkward silence, for a while, until Gregg asked, placing his elbows on the table and resting his head on his fists, "So Murtagh, what instrument do you play?"

"Uhhh, I don't play one," I answered unsure whether he was trying to dissect me or if he was just making small talk. As an afterthought I added, "I'm not bad at guitar though."

"Humph…Your brother plays the piano and Angela is just starting taking lessons."

Unsure what to say I awkwardly said, "Uhm…Good for them." I took another bite of ham to stave off his questions until I had swallowed. This conversation was going to end badly I could just tell already.

Gregg cleared his throat, "Could you pass the potatoes please?" I continued to chew. "Murtagh. Potatoes please."

"Oh…" I passed them. _God those stupid tubers were gonna be the death of me. _

"Don't you normally pass food Murtagh at the table?" he asked.

I glared at him, "No. I normally eat alone."

"Why? Did your father work late?" He continued to press on.

"No he was normally passed out on the floor by then." I got up and looked over at him. Eragon's father looked shocked and slightly taken a back. "I guess you forgot to mention that to him," I said, turning to my mother. I grabbed my plate from the table and threw it in the sink, turning the water on and wiped it clean.

Once safely in our room I laid down in the bed staring up at the ceiling. _God, this family is so pleasant and perfect and then there's me who comes alone and I just don't fit in. It's not exactly as though I'm trying too hard, but they just seem so sheltered from the world._

A/N- I think for the first time in my life I'm glad I killed a character! I really love that Murtagh lives with them now.


	6. Truths

A/N- It took me a while to figure out how to work the dragons into the story so here it is. Oh and a big thank you to RestrainedFreedom for being such an awesome reader! (and for giving me a bazillion ideas!)

FireSpirit

Chapter 6

The alarm clock was buzzing so, head still under the covers; I reached my hand out feeling for it and hit the snooze button. It continued to berate my mind with the sound. That is when I remembered I wasn't alone and this was probably Eragon's alarm clock. I shoved my head under my pillow trying to block it out and go back to sleep.

"Wake up! I'm not doing it alone if you can help." My covers were ripped off me.

"What aren't you doing alone?" I asked head still under my pillow.

"Mucking the stalls," He responded.

I threw the pillow off my head, "What are we doing to the walls!"

Eragon started to laugh, "Just get up and get dressed stupid you'll see."

So I got up and lazily slid a pair of jeans on before changing my shirt. As I followed him out the door I noticed that the clock said it was six thirty in the morning.

"Hey, um, Eragon, I think you need to change your clock. It's seven," I said.

"No its not."

"You got me up at six in the morning!" I shouted at him.

"Be quiet Angela's still asleep, plus taking care of the horses is gonna take an hour."

_Oh, of course there are horses._ I have never been one for animals. It wasn't that I hated them it was just I found better comfort in being alone. I had had a cat when I was young but it got hit by a car and my mom lied and told me it ran away. I followed him downstairs and out through the backdoor in the kitchen. We walked toward the tree line at the back of the property and sure enough backing up to the woods there was a small six horse barn. Eragon slid open one of the barn doors and closed it once I entered. He then turned and handed me a pitchfork.

"Start cleaning," he said.

"But…I," I stuttered cluelessly.

"Just pick out the droppings and the pee," He waved off my confused face and entered the stall of a golden colored horse. I turned and pulled back the latch on a gray horse's door. I slipped in and closed the stall door behind me. I started to pick up a pile of crap but the horse kept interfering by sticking it large butt or its head in my way.

"Gah! Stupid horse. Just go over there and leave me alone," I yelled in frustration.

"Don't yell at her," Eragon's muffled voice came from the stall adjacent.

"What's her name, 'cause if I knew that I could politely ask her to move her stupid ass," I said back.

"Her name's Saphira. I suppose you should know the rest of them so that you can also ask them politely to move them to move. The one I'm in with now is a gelding, his name's Glaedr. The last one's also a gelding. His name's Thorn," came Eragon's snide remark. So the rest of the morning passed as such. Eragon threw several flakes of hay down on my head from the hayloft, and for paybacks I emptied Thorn's water bucket just as he was walking past, soaking his lower legs.

_Lunchtime…_

"Murtagh you have hay in your hair," Mae said from behind me in line.

I turned, "Don't even ask," I said glaring and trying for the thousandth time to get it all off me. We took our food, paid for it and sat down at our usual table by ourselves.

"So why exactly do you have hay all over you?" she asked as we sat down.

"He threw it on me. While I was cleaning one of the horses stalls."

"You have horses!" She squealed, clapping her hands together.

"I'm hoping that was an involuntary reaction," I joked.

"You know I love horses Murtagh. I am so coming home with you today."

"Fine but I'm not spending too much time out there 'cause it smells bad," I said and took a bit of the steak wrap. For some retarded reason the only thing our school serves for a main course are wraps so you have to buy them and I find them personally disgusting.

_After school…_

Mae and I sat on my bed legs crossed. The window was open despite the autumn chill.

"Hey you wanna go see a movie tonight?" Mae asked.

"Eh, what do you wanna see?" I asked her.

"I kinda wanna go see that remake of Clash of the Titans," she stated as more a question.

"Sure why not, I have to get changed first though," I said lying down on my stomach to pull the box of shirts out from under the bed. I pulled off my still hay covered shirt just as Eragon opened the door. I felt the need to make him feel uncomfortable so I grabbed Mae's shoulder and pulled her down on top of me in an instant.

"God, Eragon!" I yelled at him, "just barge in why don't you!"

"Errrrm…sorry I'll just ummm…go," he said and backed out of the room closing the door. Mae sat up her face bright red. I looked at her; I had never seen her this embarrassed. I couldn't understand why she was though, I mean we'd been that close several times in our lives.

"What was that for?" She hissed at me.

"I needed him to go away," I told her.

"You could have just said, 'Go away Eragon.'"

"Yeah well I didn't think of that," I said honestly, "Let's just go to the movie."

"Yeah," she said. We got up and walked down the stairs and I grabbed my keys off the table at the base of them.

"We're going to the movies. See ya at nine, maybe later," I shouted to Eragon's family before opening the door.

"Murtagh it's four in the afternoon," my mother said from the other room.

I responded with a quick, "So what," and walked out the door. We got in the car and drove off.

_After the Movie…_

"That was one of the worst movies I've seen this year," Mae said throwing the soda cup in the trash can.

"The 3-D was awesome though," I said, "I think it was one of those movies that was made purely for the special effects."

"A lot of people in Hollywood seem to overlook quality now-a-days," Mae said, "I was kinda hoping it would be my new obsessive movie, but I guess not."

It was six o'clock when we got in our car so we drove to the nearest fast food place and ordered our food inside. Mae picked at her vegetarian wrap while I stared at her. I noticed that Mae hardly ever ate meat anymore but every time I mentioned that she was a vegetarian she denied it. I suppose she just didn't want to blend in with all the other girls that were going vegan right now. For the life of me though, I couldn't really figure out how she could ever think she would blend in with her short hair that was always streaked with a different color, her bizarre sense in fashion, and her thousand pairs of Converse high tops that she never wore as a pair. Currently, I realized that she was wearing a gray one with a vague stripped pattern while the other one was a bright lilac pink color. We sort of sat in silence for a long time in which each of us took turns looking at the other, shifting awkwardly in their chair, opening their mouth and then closing it, only to return to their original position. Mae finally broke the silence by asking, "Murtagh, are you ok?"

"I feel like you must have asked me that at least twice a week since we met," I said.

"And you never answer me truthfully," she said, her steel blue eyes boring into to me.

"The truth has, and still is, I honestly don't know if I'm okay," I answered as truthfully as I could. She crossed her arms and rested them on the edge of the table. She looked at me giving me that expression that women seem to acquire around the age of fourteen that seems to radiate disappointment.

"Mae seriously, that's the truth," I said, feeling guilty; of what, I'm not sure.

"Fine," she said relaxing the subject. I reached across the table and wrote, "You don't have to worry about me anymore" on her forearm. She grinned slightly at me and then we paid threw out our garbage and left.

A/N- *sigh* Fillers chapters, oh how I despise them. See yah guys in a few days when I have some stuff that's actually worth posting.


	7. Beer and Pancakesforlackofabettername

A/N- *sigh* Anyway back from vacation.(sorry I didn't post that on my page afore I left some of my readers got annoyed at me. I hope I didn't lose too many.) But yeah had fun, read five books in two weeks, got a tan, and am officially never eating seafood again! But, now I'm back to the real world so I shall start to write again. Happy start of Summer!

Chapter 7:

John's house was dark and cramped and the music was loud. As I walked to the kitchen popcorn and chips crunched under my feet. I could see Eragon dancing to my right with some girl I had actually never seen before. I only came to the party because I hoped it would help me drown all my cares and problems in alcohol, but now that I'm here I really didn't want to do anything except sit somewhere quiet and be alone, instead of shoved in a small room with far too many people. I grabbed a beer bottle off the counter and slipped upstairs into John's bedroom. He had a guitar over in the far corner so I went over and picked it up. After tuning it up slightly I started to play random chords that I had memorized several years ago before Mae's brother had broken her guitar.

_2 Hours Earlier…_

Mae was sitting beside me in the wet grass beneath the highway bridge. She turned to look at me, "Are you going to the Halloween party tonight at John's house?" she asked me.

"I might as well, but it'll depend on whether I can get out of the house because you know the party'll last into the morning." It was a Friday night; three days before Halloween and one of the juniors was having a party which would probably be very good seeing as John was an incredibly fun guy. "If I do come I'm bringing someone with me." I looked at her and her face seemed shocked but she started to laugh

"You," she said, pointing at me, "Got a date to John's party?"

"Dude, don't sound so surprised, I'm quite charming when I put my mind to it." I said very innocently. "Plus it's not a date." I added. She laughed.

"Let's go," she said standing up and getting in the car. I turned and got up, walking to the car, slightly confused. I started the engine and merged with the traffic on the freeway.

I pulled into the driveway of the Fleming's house and parked, grabbing my school bag out of the back. I ran up the stairs and threw my bag on the floor by my bed. I looked over at Eragon, "Hey you are coming with me."

He had already started the homework for the weekend and he looked up at me confused. "What do you mean?"

"Just put something else on and get in the car with me." I told him, walking downstairs.

Eragon walked out a few minutes later not looking much different but at least I tried. I knew I couldn't tell him where we were going, otherwise he would tell mom and Gregg and then I would probably be sent far away and grounded for the rest of my life. Or, possibly, sent to jail. I started to drive to John's house and I could see Eragon's face out of the corner of my eye. He actually looked worried and was holding on to his seatbelt so tightly that his knuckles were white.

"Dude, don't be so worried, I'm just getting you to live a little seeing as you aren't exactly the best self starter at that." I almost had a laughing sound to my voice.

"I do live…Very comfortably actually," he turned to glare at me, "I also enjoy life."

"Look I just want you to see a little into my life…and just try to have a little fun while you're at it." I ended this discussion.

We walked in and I found Mae quickly. She looked at me questioningly.

"What?" I asked.

"Where is she?" she asked me.

"Where is who…?" I was really confused, "I told you it wasn't a date."

"The girl you were bringing tonight." She said flatly, "It was a girl right?"

"No, it actually wasn't a girl," I paused briefly; Mae looked slightly shocked and confused. I laughed, "I brought Eragon stupid. I figured I'd bring him and he could get himself into enough trouble on his own."

Her face seemed to relax and she laughed and walked away to get something to drink.

_Back to the Present…_

So now I am sitting on some kid's bed I don't really know playing his guitar. I couldn't help but laugh at the thought of Eragon downstairs completely drunk making out with some girl he didn't even know. He would be so pissed off at me in the morning but the memories would last; at least for me they would.

_Next Morning…_

Eragon's cursed alarm clock was going off and it wasn't stopping. I shoved my hands over my ears and shoved my covers off. I slammed my hand down on the "snooze" button. Eragon had his head crushed under his pillow so I pulled it off and bent down really close to his ear. "Good morning Eragon!" I shouted. He woke up, that's for sure, and also punched me in the stomach.

We made our way down stairs and thank god that his parents weren't here. I started to open and close cabinets.

"Stop closing them so loudly," Eragon groaned from behind me. I turned and looked at him.

"You look horrible," I said, "Do you guys have any muffin mix?"

"If we have any it should be over there," He pointed to a cupboard over to the left of me. I turned and fished it out of the back.

"Do you have a griddle of any kind," I asked him putting the box of muffin mix down on the counter.

"I don't know. What exactly are you doing?" he asked me.

"Making pancakes," I answered turning around to route through the cabinet with all the casserole dishes in it.

"With muffin mix?"

"Yes, it's good hangover food," I told him, "Trust me I would know."

"Yeah about the hangover, I am really going to kick your butt once my head stops hurting."

"Once you try the pancakes with maple syrup and strawberry jam on them and it works, you won't want to kill me anymore," I told him.

"Whatever," he said and put his head down on the table, "Why do people drink so much when they know they're just gonna feel like this in the morning?"

I turned around and opened my mouth to say something snarky but I couldn't come up with anything. I honestly hadn't thought about it, so I plugged in the griddle and started to make the pancake/muffins.

The pancakes were done and Eragon and I were sitting down at the dining room table eating the pancakes. I wasn't hung-over on account that I had only had one beer last night; I just liked the pancakes by now. Angela came down the stairs rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She was still wearing her P.J.s and was carrying a stuffed, tattered tabby cat in the crook of her arm.

"You made pancakes and didn't wake up?" she asked, sounding a little disappointed. I felt bad (plus I really didn't want her to get mad and start screaming cause I would probably kill her), so I slid my half eaten stack across the table toward her. "You can have mine."

"Thanks! You're awesome!" she said running to the kitchen to get another fork. I was shocked I don't think anyone besides Mae had ever said that to me. I looked at Eragon, "Dude, your sister's crazy." I stood up and left the room, slipping my sweatshirt over my head as I closed the door.

A/N- Haha filler chapter. Next chapter will be a bit longer I promise. Mostly this chapter was just relationship building between his new family.


	8. I'm Not Okay I Promise

A/N- I actually had a whole chapter written between this one and the last but it was so boring I had to omit it. Oh and by the way I have decided that they live somewhere around the intersection of 84 and 87 in New York. Probably around the Middletown area. Oh yeah and not sure why it didn't publish on the site in the last chapter but Restrained Freedom is one of the best readers, so thank you for keeping this story going. Not that all my other readers aren't awesome too! Needless to say it has been all summer since I last updated so I shall update now.

I'm Not Okay(I Promise)

Two months I have been at the Flemming's house and none of them except Angela have gotten on my good side. Especially Gregg. Gregg has something out for me that I can't figure out. He seems to see me as a punk that wears black, as attitude problem, and smokes a lot; not saying that's not exactly what I am, but I would prefer if he didn't hold it against me Maybe it was just that I am a bit father paranoid; maybe not, but there is something. Mae keeps telling me that he's just looking out for his family and that I am "father paranoid" by now so I'm reading too much into it, but he hates me and I know it. I shift myself around on the bed and notice the funky green paint has kinda grown on me, but hold up I'm not getting attached. Eragon sat across the room from me and was bobbing his head to his "The Doors" album while doing homework. Over Christmas vacation. I was not looking forward to my mom's office Christmas party because all I can think about is Thanksgiving, which I spent dodging any relative I have known to mankind so that I wouldn't have to talk to them. I was sure meeting all her office friends would be just as horrible. My cell phone rang playing Green Day's 21 Guns, so I hit the front screen to shut it up and read the message. It was form Mae(duh) and it read: "Urgent come over to my house asap. Don't wanna talk at ur place cause of Eragon." I rolled off the bed shoving my phone in my back pocket and shoved my gray sweatshirt over my head. I ran out the door and got in the car.

I opened Mae's front door without knocking and ran up the stair and knocked on her bedroom door.

"Mae, it's me, Murtagh. Can I come in?"

"Yeah come in." She sounded okay if not a bit freaked out sounded. I ran in and grabbed her shoulders.

"What happened? What's wrong?" I asked.

"Dude chill I'm not dying…Wait how'd you get here so fast? I thought your car was no longer yours 'cause it was in your dad's name?" she said.

I laughed, "I stole Gregg's he won't miss it he works at home and only ever goes out to get something. But why did you text me? Did you just feel like giving me a heart attack 'cause it would be fun?"

"No," she looked down, "I do need to talk to you. Mom and Steve are getting married."

Well, that took me by surprise, "What? When?"

"Monday. They're going to Vegas and then going on a cruise."

"But today's Saturday. What are you going to do about Christmas?"

She shrugged and looked down, "I don't know."

"Well, you could come to the Christmas party my mom is having. I won't be very fun but it'll be something." I shrugged. She nodded so I assumed she was coming.

"You okay Mae?" I ask her.

"Not really," she laughed uneasily, "Daniel was supposed to be coming up from North Carolina but I don't know now."

We sat and talked until it started to get dark. We hadn't talked, like really talked, in a long time. Things had gotten weird between us lately and I really didn't like it.

_One week later, Friday Christmas Eve…_

So this party crap was worse than I thought it was gonna be. Not only did I have to attend a family event and act like I liked my family, suck up to all mom's coworkers, and wish them "Happy Holidays", but I had to do it wearing formal wear. Mae had laughed and suggested I join a circus when I had told her this, but she had nicely agreed to come. Gregg had told me to behave and not cost my mom her promotion. I am beginning to feel like freakin' Harry Potter.

Mae and I were currently having fun making up new stories for ourselves every time we met a new person. Our current victims were a couple by the name of Louis and Claire Weston.

"Our first is due in seven months," I said placing a hand on Mae's stomach. They couple looked shocked and the woman said, "Oh, look Louis, I think I just saw Mr. Porter." After saying "goodbye" they shuffled off after "Mr. Porter". I grinned at Mae and she elbowed me in the ribs. I faked a hurt look and she laughed.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I turned to see Gregg. "Murtagh, can I talk to you over here please?" He asked. I, not feeling like arguing, followed him to a small archway just off the main banquet hall and he starts to go all "Dursley" on me and I zone out.

"Honestly, Jim, I think mom's job is pretty secure so I wouldn't go worrying about me blowing this thing up for her," I smart mouth back, "forgetting" his name.

He took a step closer to me, "All I ask," step, "is that," step, "you take this," step, "a bit more seriously," shove. Something inside me snapped. My shoulder seemed to sting where his hand had made contact. I stared at him blankly for a bit then took a swing and hit his jaw. I wasn't going to take any shit, not anymore. I was fighting back for all the times I never did before.

I don't remember how we got back to the main hall but we did and we had quite the crowd watching our spat. He shoved me hard back into a chair and my ribs started to hurt. I regained my footing and punched him in the face again. I heard his nose crack and it started to bleed. That was when several people squealed. He was taken aback by this so I took advantage of his distraction and gave him a good hard kick in the stomach, sending him backward into a cart piled high with dirty dishes. The cart tipped and sent cutlery, food and shards of china flying everywhere. When he got back up he started at me, swinging his fists wildly. Most of them missed but one collided with my nose leaving my left nostril bleeding. Sometime around then my mother shouted something to us about stopping and that we were better than this. To damn bad. I was mad as hell and nothing was gonna stop me now. Plus, it felt good to finally fight back. I brought my leg around behind him and pulled as hard as I could. His knee collapsed as I had hoped and he fell to the floor.

"Touch me again, motherfucker, and I'll kill you," I said through my teeth so only he could hear. I ran out of the building into the cold December air.

I was sitting on the curb, my feet literally in the gutter (ironic eh?), when Mae came up behind me. She sat down on my right.

"He's okay in case you wanted to know," she said.

"No offense but I really couldn't give a shit right now," I said back. I pulled my pack of cigarettes out of my pocket and lit one. Oh yeah, I smoke a lot now, like I used to but worse. Worse as in I could smoke a pack a day if I had the time. I was trying to even my breathing so I didn't go postal but my brain was wired right now and I couldn't stop thinking about how good it felt to hit someone finally.

She looked up at me, "Are you okay?"

"We're leaving," I said flatly, getting up.

"What? Wait Murtagh come on think about it a little bit. You can't just run off like this. You aren't even listening to me."

"Shut up and get in the damn car if you're coming." I said reaching the car and leaning on the door. Mae walked around and got in the passenger side door. I sat down and turned the key. I put my foot down and the car shot away.

We drove for a while in silence. After stopping at our houses to get our money and clothes for later we started to drive south. I was driving in the passing lane mainly and going about 85mph. I looked over towards Mae and she was sound asleep, head against the window and her feet on the seat touching my thigh.

Sometime around Midnight I pull off the interstate to find food, which happened to be a dumpy little Burger King. I parked and nudged Mae in the shoulder.

"Hey Sleeping Beauty," I grinned at her, "You hungry?"

"Yeah, fancy food doesn't keep we very well fed." She opened her door and stretched, "You might wanna wash off a bit before you go in there. I nodded and found the bathroom inside the building. I looked at myself in the mirror and wished I had just changed before coming in. My shirt was bloody from my nose and my pants were badly wrinkled from driving in them too long. At least I wasn't wearing dress shoes for I had worn my combat boots to the party. I flipped on the water and scrubbed my hands.

Mae was at a table with two trays in front of her when I came out. I slid into the booth opposite her.

"You still look like a murderer," She said.

"Yeah well you can't get anything out of this shirt." I shrugged and grabbed my food.

"Hey can I ask you something?"

"Shoot" I said, taking a sip of Coke.

"Who were you fighting?"

"I don't get what you're asking."

"You know what I mean." She was glaring slightly at me.

"I don't know okay," I said angry again, slamming my drink down on the table, making several crack-heads at the next table over jump about ten feet in the air. We ate in silence from then on.

Two hours later we were still driving when I pulled over to the side of the road and got out. I leaned against the passenger side of the car feeling sick. Tears flowed down my face and I could feel the cold December air biting at my cheeks where my tears left their tracks. My breathing was ragged and showed in puffs of fog. _I was becoming my father and eventually I would do something horrible and never be able to take it back,_ was all I could think, over and over again. _No one's life should be this messed up. You'd think that with all the shit I got when I was younger I'd be used to bad situations but life is the ever surprising force isn't it?_ Eventually I get a hold of myself and get back into the car.

"You okay?" I hear Mae ask.

"Yeah," I say with a sniff, "Let's just get some sleep." I tucked my legs up onto the seat and leaned against the back of it. I could feel her eyes on me but eventually I slipped into sleep and I supposed she did too.

A/N- Okay that was a pretty short chapter but I had to split it up. Not sure if I really like this chapter but I'll post it anyway because I'm starving my readers. And yes I know that I change tense in this chapter a lot but I have troubles with that and I'll work on it I promise. So see ya and please review! Later.


	9. Jackass

A/N- OMG a new chapter! Wahoooo! This is honestly more exciting for me than it is for any of you, because I have just been thinking about this damn story for months. It's been awful and I couldn't come up with anything to write about in a filler chapter so basically I got hung up. Then the other day I had a 'wow growing up isn't any better than being a kid; it's actually worse' moments, so I wrote it down. Oh and Restrained Freedom, please keep reading my story. I beg of you don't leave me because of what I told you the other day. I fear I may have scared you off.

By morning a fine layer of snow had built up on the windshield. The inside of the car was freezing and I was cold. I glanced over at Mae. Her arms were wrapped around her torso tightly and her head rested on the window. She must have been cold in her sleeveless dress, so I slipped off my suit jacket and laid it over her. I looked at the snow on the car disdainfully and turned around in my seat to see if I had left any sweatshirts in here. I really didn't want to get out of the car and brush off the snow with nothing but a really uncomfortable and very drafty tuxedo shirt. Finally, after a lot of digging, I found a sweatshirt shoved under the passenger side seat. I sat back and began to unbutton the bloody shirt I had worn all night. I slid it off my shoulders and threw it in the backseat.

"Murtagh, what are you doing?" Mae's groggy voice broke the silence in the car.

A sudden rush of embarrassment hit me at being half naked, but I slid the sweatshirt on over my head and turned to her. "I have to go out and clean off the car and I wasn't about to do it in that." I pointed back at the seat where I had thrown the bloody shirt.

I turned the key in the ignition. The car started and thankfully the heat kicked on. I got out; brushed of the car and got back in, holding my hands over the heat vents for a bit before I could feel them again. I pushed down on the gas pedal and began to drive.

The car was dreadfully silent for a long time, with only the radio playing quietly in the background. Eventually though I just turned it off because it was just playing the same goddamn Christmas carols over and over again. I kept glancing at Mae and then looking back to the road really fast. I could tell she wanted to say something, but it was like she couldn't tell how to put it or something.

"Would you just spit it out, if you're gonna say something," I said a bit more hostile than planned.

I could feel her glare but I didn't look at her. I kept one hand on the wheel and the other on the cold window.

"Yeah," she said suddenly, "I think I will spit it out. You're a jackass."

That took me by surprise, I almost laughed. I looked at her, "What?"

"You heard me. I said you're a jackass," she said completely seriously.

I went to open my mouth, but she cut over me. "No just shut up for a bit. For example what was last night all about? Why did you do that? Why would you hit him?"

I opened my mouth again but she told me to shut up. "You asked me a question; no three questions. Don't you want me to answer them?"

Mae glared at me, "No I don't not yet. I want you to think about them until the end of my speech." I shut my mouth and glared out the window.

She began again, "Look I didn't mean to start this conversation with 'You're a jackass', it just slipped out. But you are and I'm worried about it." She paused for a bit and continued, "Okay I'm starting again. Do you remember when we were kids and I had you over for my eleventh birthday party?"

I shook my head.

"We went swimming?" she offered. I remembered but I didn't feel like saying I did. "Anyway, all the kids were teasing the shit out of you because you wouldn't swim. You had told them you didn't know how. I had seen you swim before so I had no idea why you would tell them that. I was so young and it was before I learned to expect the worst with you. But now I'm older and I realize it was because you were bruised. He had beaten you and you had the bruises to show it. You were so grown up about and you were always smart enough to hide it. I never understood what was wrong with you until I was older. Once I grew up I always just expected that you were broken and scarred; in more ways than one." She paused to think for a bit.

I hated the way she said that. I was broken; like I was fragile or something. But then again, I was, in a way. I turned to her opening my mouth slowly in case she started again. When she didn't I continued, "I wasn't all that grown up about it. I cried all day that day, until the party. I figured I should be a boy and show the girls I was tough. I was so damn scared." I added the last bit as an afterthought, in a mutter, but I think she heard me.

"As you grew up, though, I started to see you were healing. You weren't as lost as you used to be. You had gotten used to it. That was almost worse than the revelation that you were being beaten almost every night. I hated it that you just accepted it. I hated that you were free to talk about it and you showed the bruises like they were medals. It was awful. And it was worse to know everyone knew but they never did anything to help because you were the social outcast." She sort of spewed all of this out in one breath. I glanced over at her wondering where she was going with this but she hushed me again.

"I suppose what I'm trying to say here is that my whole life I've been there for you. You always had so much pain in your life, I felt guilty about thinking about my life as painful. But now you're safe. The danger has passed for you and now everything is just crashing down on top of me. Everything I ever felt when we were kids is gone now and I can't stop thinking about everything in an awful way. Everything you say or I hear it just weighs on me more and more. I can't take it any longer." She was in tears and she couldn't stop.

I just sat there like a moron thinking about how much of a jackass I really was. Never in my entire life do I remember asking her if _she_ was okay. I never remember even stopping to think about how anything would affect her. I was a conceited, self centered, jackass! I parked the car on the birm again and crawled over into her seat beside her. She leaned into me and I wrapped my arms around her as best I could.

"I'm sorry," I whispered into her ear.

She sat there just sobbing into my chest, before finally, between sobs, she choked out the words, "It's just you don't know what it's like to be your friend. It hurts."

There was a huge pause where I just sat there not knowing how to respond, and she dissolved into tears again. She pulled herself together again and wrapped her arms around me. "I love you." I heard her say these words and fear jolted through me. Oh my fucking god! She loved me. This wasn't happening and it couldn't but I just sat there rubbing my fist against her back and said "I know."

A/N- I hope I got this out early enough some of you may be able to read it tonight but if not, tomorrow is another day *snigger* Sorry I just watched Gone With the Wind the other day and every time I hear the word 'tomorrow' I laugh internally because she was just such an awful character.


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